Does our image of God always have to be male?

We read in the first book of the bible - Genesis that "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created him".

All the way through the bible there are descriptions of God as compassionate. Reading the bible in the language it was written in - Hebrew; the word used for compassionate is 'raham' which is also the word for 'womb'. So when the writers of the bible refer to God as compassionate thy are describing God as womb-like, which is a completely feminine image of God.

With all the discussions going on about women in leadership, surely if God created us in his image both male and female then if we don't have her leadership, if we don't have her wisdom, her voice, her perspective; we are not just missing her, but so much of what is central to the very core of who God is.

The prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 66 and verse 13 "As a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you". When Isaiah spoke these words, his people didn't know if they had a future, they were full of despair and had little hope. Sound familiar in these times of recession, cuts and job losses? Isaiah was saying, and I believe God is still saying today 'You have seen a mother comfort her child, and this is what God is going to do for you.

God is so much bigger than the language we use; so if then limit his diversity, by saying than some people are second class citizens, then surely it's like cutting off parts of our body?

So my prayer is that you may be able to embrace the God who is way bigger than anything we can say.



This was inspired by one of Rob Bell's Nooma videos called "She". For more information on this and others go to the Nooma web site.

What language to we use to describe God?

Jonny Baker is his blog has posted a very interesting article on the words we use to describe God.

grace on saturday night ( yes i decided to go and watch the football later...) was really good with lots of stuff to chew over for months to come i suspect. we've been having a few discussions on the language we use in grace and how it can be used to include or exclude often unwittingly. speaking of god was the first service where this has been picked up. jenny has written the service up in the grace archive, with links to prayers, confession and so on...

I do thoroughly recommend you take a look at this but please do it with an open heart. It has really made me think about the language we use to describe church and how open or closed we make God in the language we use. Do take a look at the archive, I found it very interesting the words the congregation at Grace decided to 'park'.

The whole use of language and moving away from some of the standard phrases we trot out (like those that Grace chose to park) got me thinking about musicians and some of the work we do with Wellspring helping them to free themselves from the music put in front of them and improvise.

Once you start to improvise you have to listen to what everyone is playing to make sure what you are playing fits with what others are doing. You need to listen. When playing the 'dots', you don't need to listen in the same way, you have the security in knowing that someone else has worked out that what you are playing will fit, so you don't have to think for yourself. But when improvising you have to listen, think and then decide if what you are doing is working.

Thanks Jonny and the folk of Grace for making me think.